During our tour of events which included Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, CA and South By Southwest in Austin, TX, we made a few side trips to collect some very intriguing donations to the museum.

Two of the major items are arcade cabinets which will be featured in the museum’s embedded arcade. The first is a Star Trek sit-down cabinet. This beautiful vector-graphics game never looked or sounded better, but what sets this particular one apart is that its previous owner took the coin door to Star Trek conventions, and had it signed by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei and other cast members, making it a one-of-a-kind! Thanks to Randy Soares for donating the Star Trek arcade cabinet.

Another arcade cabinet added to the museum’s inventory is Stun Runner, a sit-down futuristic racing game. This cabinet features a prototype board which may or may not be used in day-to-day action. Thanks to Andrew Burgess for donating the Stun Runner cabinet.

Finally, we had a Sega Pluto donated. The Pluto was to be Sega’s “Saturn plus Netlink” console and there are very few of these prototypes known to exist. This particular unit is white with the Saturn logo stickered to it. It is a model and not a working prototype, much like the Sega Neptune that has been part of our collection for a great many years. Thanks to Steve Lin for donating the Sega Pluto.

The Videogame History Museum would like to pass along our sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of Ralph Baer.

Ralph was a true innovator and inventor and never stopped working on various projects right up until his passing. We were fortunate to get to know him over the years and even to visit with him at his home. Ralph was one of the first alumni to join our board of advisors and it is with a sad heart that we received this news.

A true gentleman who will be missed by all who owe him such a debt for creating this industry. Farewell Ralph, the Father of Videogames, who will always be in our hearts and hands.

We’re packing our bags for Los Angeles and another back-to-back exhibit. Like last year, we will have exhibits at both the industry-only Game Developer Conference’s mobile apps show (GDC: Next) and the hybrid gaming/comics/culture public event Comikaze. Last year we exhibited a history of handheld devices at GDC: Next and a general vintage gaming timeline and arcade at Comikaze. We’re looking to shake things up a bit, come check them out… or wait for the photo galleries!

The Videogame History Museum is one step closer to opening a permanent home. On September 18th the city of Frisco, Texas voted unanimously to build out the unfinished 10.4k square foot area in The Discovery Center to make way for us. There is room for future expansion in Frisco as well. We’re excited to have reached this milestone and eager to settle in. For more details, check out this article.

Videogame History Museum will be exhibiting at not one but two events in November.

First up is The Comikaze Expo from November 1st through the 3rd. Stan Lee’s Comikaze is Los Angeles’ first and only large-scale, multi-media pop culture convention. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Comikaze assembles the most exciting and innovative in comics, video games, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and all things pop-culture. Partnering with comic legend Stan Lee himself and Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Comikaze is the only pop-culture convention owned and operated by true pop-culture icons. After spending much time researching both local and national conventions in the United States, Regina Carpinelli, the co-founder and CEO of Comikaze Entertainment Inc, and the rest of the Comikaze team have crafted an event that will thrill and excite even the most casual comic fan.

Immediately following that, on November 5th through the 7th we will be at GDC Next. From the creators of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Game Developers Conference Next (GDC Next) is a brand new developer event focusing on creating the game experiences of the future, including how we will play games, on what we will play them, and how we will monetize, distribute, market, and share them–we’re bringing together the creators of tomorrow’s biggest and most innovative video games for this event and getting them to present their best practices to you.

Three decades of your favorite video game journalists have been united to collaborate on a new print & digital gaming magazine RETRO.

Do you long for the great video gaming magazines from back in the day? Magazines with some heart and soul without all the big media fluff? We sure do, and that is why video game auction site GameGavel.com and the RetroGamingRoundup.com podcast decided to team up with some of the most popular and influential gaming journalists and personalities from the past three decades to introduce an independent print, digital and online publication dedicated to the past, present and future of the video gaming pastime that will hearken back to the amazing magazines from the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s.

RETRO will feature coverage of games from every era, including classic gaming systems, current and next generation consoles and upcoming independently funded projects, with an emphasis on:

Extensive retrospectives on classic consoles and the games (and ill-fated add-ons) that made them famous.

RETRO reviews of classic games across countless genres.

Reviews of current generation products with a focus on franchise reboots, games with classic licensing tie-ins and modern games that build on 8, 16 and 32-bit gaming’s core principles.

Legendary game designer Brian Colin and Game Refuge Inc. are kickstarting the ever-popular Sega Genesis classic, General Chaos. The long-awaited sequel titled “General Chaos II: Sons of Chaos” is an intense squad-based multiplayer slapstick action/strategy/tactics game, just like the original. Sons of Chaos will feature a vastly improved control scheme, huge 3-D environments, tons of weapon upgrades and much, much more!

The Reward tiers offer cool prizes such as copies of the game, t-shirts, concept art, in-game bonuses, game design credits and more. There’s even cool swag like dog tags, mouse pads, collectible figures, and a General Chaos arcade machine! We’re behind Brian all the way and hope you’ll contribute, like we did, to make this sequel a reality!

QuestLord – Created by our friend, Eric Kinkead, QuestLord takes you back to the early days of Dungeon gaming when classic turn-based RPGs defined the genre. In QuestLord you assume the role of a lone hero out to save the Shattered Realm from certain destruction! If you enjoyed classics like Dungeon Master, you’ll love QuestLord. Available for $1.99 in the Itunes App Store.

Karateka Classic – The awesome Jordan Mechner side-scrolling karate classic from 1984 is back! Karateka arrives on iOS with all the challenge and charm of the original Apple II experience. Fight as the lone hero to save the princess from the evil warlord Akuma whose relentless guards and pesky hawk will challenge your skill at every turn. Available for $0.99 in the Itunes App Store.

As part of Gearbox Community Day 2013, our generous friends at Gearbox Software are holding a live charity event including an auction on Saturday, September 14, 2013 at Gilley’s Palladium Ballroom in Dallas, TX.

All proceeds from the event and auction will go towards supporting the Videogame History Museum. The auction will feature some amazing items including modern and classic videogames, consoles, and memorabilia. The auction will be open to both streaming and in-person attendees and promises to be one of the highlights of Community Day 2013.

The Videogame History Museum team will be on hand to share their exhibit “The History of Videogames” once again at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on June 11-13, 2013. This exhibit, well over twice the size of last year’s, will include many of the familiar aspects including a timeline represented in games, systems, accessories and memorabilia; a “hands-on” section where attendees can get re-acquainted with the systems from their youth; arcade game cabinets set to free-play; live entertainment featuring 8-Bit Weapon; and classic “living rooms” to experience the joys of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s home console play. There will be new surprises this year as well!

Museum Spotlight

Nintendo World Championships '90 Cart

This month's
Museum Spotlight is Nintendo World Championships ‘90 cart #132, originally owned by Josh Caraciolo, a tournament winner from the Philadelphia area who played in the age 12-17 group. Josh sold it to a guy named Dave (trustey1 on eBay) at a con called "Wizard World" earlier this summer (2012). Dave took offers on eBay but the deal fell through. We explained to Dave our intention of giving this item a permanent home in a physical museum and he sold it to us at a very fair price.

History: Nintendo hosted a series of competitive events across 29 cities in 1990. The competition was held using this custom game that lasts for 6 minutes and 21 seconds. It starts with Super Mario Brothers and switches to Rad Racer when you gather 50 coins. Finish the course in Rad Racer and it switches to Tetris where you play until time expires. There were 3 age categories and the contest spanned a 3-day period. The finalist for each age group in each city won a trophy, $250, and a trip for two to the World Finals at Universal Studios Hollywood. There are 116 special game cartridges in all: 90 gray cartridges were given out to finalists and 25 are gold colored and were given out as prizes in a separate contest held by Nintendo Power magazine.